Tag Archives: Lizzie

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

A couple of glitches and some birthday wishes!

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Just like any 20-year-old dwelling (whether it’s on wheels or not), things are bound to break. When we got Lizzie back from her spa treatment (and new turbo thingamajig), we noticed that the levelers were not working. It wasn’t a big deal at the moment since we were parked on a nice level concrete pad, but that is not usually the case. Gary did a bit of troubleshooting, contacted an RV tech, zeroed in on the problem, and while it took a bit of time, finally got the parts on order.
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They have just now arrived and hopefully all will be well by the time the weekend is over! Our spot here at Forest Glen is level-ish, and I just have to chase after our wheeled chairs now and then. It’s all good!
We also noticed when we set out from Kentucky to drive to Texas that our water pump wasn’t working. Really??? Well, a stop at Walmart to pick up several gallons of water and we were good to go. We’ve spent weeks and weeks at our Vermont cabin without running water, so we are well-trained in life without water coming out of the spigot. And the toilet still flushed with a little water rinse so no problem there. Now that we’re hooked up to ‘city water’, the pump isn’t necessary, but the part is in hand and hopefully is also on the “needs to be fixed” list for the weekend.
Meanwhile – a slightly bigger glitch appeared when we were at our Lindale house and Gary started working on the shed space that is destined to be my very own sewing studio. (Ok, it’s just a sewing room – but “studio” sounds pretty fancy, right?). First up was addressing those soft spots on the floor. His first thought was some water damage, so he was quite dismayed to discover that it wasn’t water damage, it was termites.
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And they had been busy!
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So what started as floor repair has turned into a floor rebuild – with a good termite treatment thrown in!
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He cut back the drywall to make sure the wall studs weren’t damaged
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and got to work doing the rebuild.
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I failed to get a picture of his most recent progress, but when we get back to the house later this month, I think we’ll (let’s be real – he’ll) be ready to put down the subfloor. And then I will have to decide on flooring and paint colors (since we’ll want to paint before we put down the final flooring, right?). It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!
So there you have it – just some of the Life that has come our way in the last couple of months. But even with those unfortunate (though manageable) glitches, we still have so very much to be thankful for! First of all, we’ve had our dear Lizzie for all these years and she has rarely given us any trouble. And now we have a house – and all the fun stuff that comes with it! While I’m trying to figure out what cupboard to put the peanut butter in, he’s out there fixing things – levelers, pumps, and yes – even floors! He truly is my superhero! And I thank God for him every day!

But wait – the Birthday wishes!! I cannot let the day go by without sending out special birthday wishes to our precious granddaughter Alex –
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who turns 10 today on the 10th.
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It’s her golden birthday – and her entrance into the double digits! Happy birthday, darlin’! We love you to the moon and back (with or without that crazy hat!)!!!

Thanks for stopping by, friends!
Steph

Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

Aging Gracefully

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Many people are surprised when I tell them we are in our seventeenth year of living  (and traveling) in our motorhome. (Trust me, I’m surprised too!) But what really seems to be the biggest surprise is that we are still in the rig that we started out in, our 2003 Beaver Santiam that we affectionately call Lizzie (after my adventurous grandmother!).

Cobourg September 2004

We (Gary) did a lot of research before we bought our home, and we’re very pleased that she has held up so well. We’ve done some renovations (new flooring, removing the sofa and putting in a desk and upgrading to a residential refrigerator back in Oct ’15) and Gary’s been really good about engine maintenance, massive oil changes, etc., etc., etc. She does have a couple of dings and ouchies, but after all, she’s travels many good miles and parked in countless unusual parking spots! But, every now and again, just like in your house, something just plain wears out. Recently we had that happen to the latch on our front door. Did I mention that it’s our only door? It had been sticking for a while, but we were finding that if you stood to the side, held your tongue in just the right way and asked nicely, it would eventually open. So I guess we weren’t drop dead surprised when the day came that it just plain wouldn’t engage with the mechanism and open. Thankfully, the bedroom window is usually not latched (shhhh – don’t tell the riff-raff), so Gary got out the ladder, climbed in through that window (it’s also the egress window so it actually hinges open from the top), and let us in. He then began the deconstruction of the door to try and diagnose the problem.
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Oy – so many screws, so many levers!
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Sure enough, it needed a whole new handle/latch assembly. And of course, trying to find that for a 17 year old motorhome was no easy task. He eventually found one he thought would work, and got it on order. The trick of course was that while we waited we couldn’t shut the door all the way unless we were inside.  Well, we could close it just fine.  There just was no way to open it.
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There may or may not have been a couple of times that the egress window was used during those days…..
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Ahem.

I am happy to report that the new latch is in place and once again all is right with the (door) world. Well, except sometimes, since it wasn’t an exact replacement, it doesn’t actually stay closed. But hey, I used to live in a house built in the 1860’s so I can deal with little quirky stuff like that!

She’s a good ol’ girl, our Lizzie is. She’ll be 18 in March, and while I’m not so sure what that equates to in “RV Years”, we think she doing just fine. We try to treat her with respect, and give her lots of praise when we make it safely to each new destination.  And as you can see in the post header, we even upgraded her outside lights to LED!  Lord willing, she’ll see us through several more years of adventures!

Thanks for stopping by,
Steph